


Friendly Nephew Spider-Man

by Agf



Category: Spider-Man - All Media Types, Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aunt May is cool af, Drabble, Family Feels, Gen, Humor, Post Homecoming End-Scene, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Precious Peter Parker, Revelations, based on the trailer
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-10-10 19:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17432111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Agf/pseuds/Agf
Summary: At first, May is super pissed.He turns around slowly, clutching the mask in two hands like a safety blanket. May raises her eyebrows, opens and closes her mouth a few times, and then finally says, “Really, Peter?”“Look,” Peter starts, “it’s not as bad as it looks, Aunt May, I swear. I just… It just sort of happened, and then I figured I should—”





	Friendly Nephew Spider-Man

**Author's Note:**

> This drabble is based on a couple of snippets from the Far From Home trailer! 
> 
> It's short and silly but I hope you enjoy!

At first, May is super pissed.

Peter doesn’t even _try_ to say she’s made a mistake – mostly because he’s wearing the suit, sans mask, but partly because this is _May_. She has a preternatural ability to sniff out the truth of things, and a lifetime of being able to read his face.

Plus, she’s kind of scary when she has that glare focused on you. Peter would rather fight the Vulture again then try lying so blatantly right to her face.

He turns around slowly, clutching the mask in two hands like a safety blanket. May raises her eyebrows, opens and closes her mouth a few times, and then finally says, “ _Really_ , Peter?”

“Look,” Peter starts, “it’s not as bad as it looks, Aunt May, I swear. I just… It just sort of happened, and then I figured I should—”

He’s cut off when May holds up a hand. “When did it ‘sort of happen’?”

“It was just before, before Uncle Ben…” he trails off. At least neither of them flinch at the name anymore, although Aunt May does tighten her lips a little, clearly doing some timeline work in her head.

Peter takes another breath, and figures, well, might as well tell her the whole truth. “There was this spider…” he says.

“So, for all this time, you’ve just been sneaking out of the house? Throwing yourself around the streets? God, Peter, that fight in the bank near Delmar’s…?”

“I wasn’t even late for school the next day,” Peter points out, but he has the good sense to look chastised.

“And god knows what else you’ve been up to, I can’t believe you. I can’t believe you would lie to me about it for all this time!”

“I’m sorry, Aunt May. I am.”

“You looked me right in the eye and promised me you would avoid dangerous situations,” May says. This time, she doesn’t sound as mad. More hurt than anything.

Peter feels the guilt rise up inside him like a wave, but it’s battling against the certainty that he’s doing the right thing. That he made the right choice by donning the mask and trying to help.

Ned called this kind of problem being ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’. It feels apt, meeting Aunt May’s stare.

“I’m careful,” Peter insists. “I am. Plus, y’know, the suit’s got a lot of safety features and I can kinda tell when to dodge—”

May takes a deep breath. She pinches the bridge of her nose. “They talk about this Spider-Man in the news. They call him a _menace_.”

“I know- I know. They don’t like me much,” Peter says ruefully. He hates that he knows Aunt May is thinking about that toilet paper photo. He really, really wishes he had a bit more control over the kind of Spidey photos that get published.

There’s a thought…

“Have the Avengers offered to help with any of this?” May waves her hands around expressively, encompassing Peter’s entire… everything. That’s fair, he thinks, he deserves that.

“Mr Stark offered to let me join, sort of just now, actually, but I said no! I thought maybe it would be better if I just focused on things here, instead.” He’s trying his best to sway May, pulling out every trick in the book. The wide eyes, the self-deprecating little tilt to the head, the slouched shoulders that say ‘I know I did something wrong, but I’m trying’.

May appears completely unmoved. In fact, she looks more confused than anything. “What?”

Peter drops the act. “What? I told him I didn’t want to be an Avenger.”

“I’m not talking about being an _Avenger_ Peter, and I would hope you would say no to an offer like that! You’re fifteen, you’re going to college.”

By now, Peter is well aware that they’re apparently having two very different conversations. “College,” he repeats, “college?”

“College. And you haven’t answered my question. Don’t think I won’t ring that Tony Stark right now and demand it of him, instead. I have some strong thoughts to share with that man.”

Peter has just a moment to frown over the fact that Aunt May apparently has a direct line to Mr Stark while he’s been having to go through Happy all this time, before the confusion is worming its way back into the forefront of his mind. “I don’t understand the question,” he admits, “helping me with what, exactly?”

“The ‘menace’ thing!” May replies, exasperated at having to repeat herself. “You know, I think I will ring him. Ask him what exactly he thinks he’s playing at…”

“No!” Peter interrupts before May can fish her phone out of her jeans. “No, don’t call him—That’s not even important, it’s not important what they write.”

“Of course it is!” May replies. She looks him over – her stupid, foolhardy, brave nephew in a superhero suit, and sighs. “You’re not a menace. They can’t say things like that about you, Peter.”

Peter swallows. “That’s the thing you’re most annoyed about?” he asks.

“No, of course not. I’m angry about the lying and the hiding, too. But this thing I can actually do something about.”

“The menace thing?”

May smiles, and it’s tight-lipped and brittle, but it’s there. Peter feels his shoulders unwind from around his ears. “You need a better PR manager, Pete,” his aunt declares. “And I want to volunteer for the role. They’re not going to be claiming that _my_ nephew is a dangerous vigilante if I've got a say in the matter.”

Peter opens his mouth, pauses, and then holds up the mask. “So I can still be Spider-Man?” he asks, bracing for another argument, but May just nods. Slowly. With an unreadable sort of look on her face. 

“But you’ll tell me everything, from now on,” she adds, “and there’ll be a curfew. You need to sleep.”

Peter’s nodding like a broken bobble-head before May even finishes speaking. This is… so much easier than he ever thought this conversation would go. He’ll take anything she offers. Anything to keep May on side.

She opens her arms, and Peter falls into them like usual. They stand that way for a long time, May’s fingers tracing along the raised seams of the spider pattern by Peter’s shoulders. Peter has his face buried in her shoulder, breathing in the comforting burnt-cooking, shampoo smell of her. His heart is just about crawling back to a normal pace.

“I’m pulling a shift at the shelter this weekend,” May says after a while of silence, her voice a rumble above him. “Think Spider-Man would want to come along and help?”

Peter smiles, and nods, “I think he would.”


End file.
